Tag Archives: mesquite

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Dunes and Mountains, First Light

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Dunes and Mountains, First Light
The first sunlight falls across sand dunes with a backdrop of desert mountains

Dunes and Mountains, First Light. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The first sunlight falls across sand dunes with a backdrop of desert mountains.

Back in early March I made a trip to Death Valley, partly to meet and camp with family members and partly (of course!) to make photographs. Early March is still in Death Valley’s “cool” season, and I don’t think I saw temperatures above the mid-70-degree range. (By the time of my next visit the highs will likely be well into the 90s. And after that? I stay away from the place!)

When I travel to places like this it isn’t at all unusual to encounter other photographers that I know. (I once ran into a friend walking around a bend in a narrow slot canyon beyond the end of a 25-mile gravel road!) This time I discovered that a trio of photographer/friends from the Yosemite area were camped nearby, and we joined forces for an early morning visit to the dunes the next day. We met up and started walking well before it was light out, and we arrived in the dunes before the sun came up. Soon the first light began to slant across the forms of the dunes and we worked quickly in this ephemeral light.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Dune Curves, Morning Light

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Dune Curves, Morning Light
Early morning light and shadows on curving dune forms, Death Valley National Park

Dune Curves, Morning Light. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early morning light and shadows on curving dune forms, Death Valley National Park.

Yes, it is one more in the never-ending series of sand dune photographs. As I have written previously, the dunes provide a seemingly endless photographic laboratory in light and shadow, color, texture, form, and more. They can be photographed on the large scale, where they comprise an entire monumental landscape, but they can also be presented on a smaller scale, where a photograph might feature a single gesture of sand, a plant, animal tracks, or some other small thing.

I think that you can look at many photographs of this type as having a dual nature. Looked at one way they are representations of “the real” in the natural world, though always with some degree of subjectivity and interpretation. Looked at in another way they can almost be abstract, divorced from their sources. I enjoy trying to see them both ways and in exploring the flexible boundary between the two ways of seeing. Here I was intrigued by mirrored shapes, in one case created by sunlight on a dune surface and in the other a shadow cast by a low ridge that is not within the frame.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: People In Landscape, Photographs: Photographers, Photographs: Southern California

Three Photographers, Dunes And Mountains

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Three Photographers, Dunes And Mountains
Three photographers working the morning light atop a sand dune ridge, with desert mountains byond.

Three Photographers, Dunes And Mountains. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three photographers working the morning light atop a sand dune ridge, with desert mountains byond.

Five of us went out together to photograph in the dunes on this morning. It was only after I arrived in Death Valley that I discovered that a group of photographers and friends was down from the Yosemite area and camped nearby. We made a loose plan to meet up the next morning before sunrise and head out into the darkness early enough to be well into the dunes before the first good light arrived.

We made it out there and went to work, photographing in the predawn light, then as the sun came up, and continuing until the light began to lose its early hour magic. One fun thing about photographing with other photographers is that when things slow down a bit… we sometimes make photographs of one another! A side benefit of this is that almost all of us have in our collections photographs of some pretty interesting and talented people, and a second benefit is that sometimes they share photographs they made of us. Here my three friends are set up on the spine of a dune, working the early morning light against a backdrop of tall desert mountains.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Dusk Dunes

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Dusk Dunes
Soft evening light on low sand dunes

Dusk Dunes. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Soft evening light on low sand dunes.

Sand dunes are perhaps the most classic “desert” photography subject. For most people, they are their first association with these places, and their dry, bare (or so it seems), and utterly dry features are some combination of beautiful, intriguing, and dangerous. I am certainly not immune to their appeal, and photographing them can be an endlessly challenging activity. One reason is that as photographic subjects they are much more varied than you might initially imagine. While they have their own shapes and colors, these are changed radically by wind, color and intensity of light, and more. They provide one other challenge, too — when I first look at them it always seems like they will be easy to photograph, but they always end up presenting more challenges than I expected.

I love photographing dunes in the marginal light at the start and end of the day, and especially the time right around and just after sunset. At these times the dunes undergo sometimes-astonishing color transformations. The warmer tones, which are sometimes sun-blasted into neutrality during the day, begin to emerge in the softer light. And the dunes pick and reflect a wide variety of colors — blue from darker sky; reds, yellows, and even purple from sunset clouds. I photographed these smaller dune formations from a distance in the early evening.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.